So, I’m sitting in a lobby, and this woman engages me in conversation. She doesn’t know me from Adam. She talks about her occupation and her family; especially the women in it who are all blessed with a gift.
She wants me to know that she is tight with God. (How then is profanity sprinkled in her words, I wonder?). Being a prophet is her thing, she continues; visions given to her as though on a television screen.
Then, with delight, she begins to talk about her granddaughter who is seated next to her. I’m told the granddaughter has the ability to see and speak with her deceased great grandmother.
I ask the woman, truly wanting to know, how she fits that kind of communication with scripture. After all, scripture says the dead know nothing. They don’t have any thoughts, nor remembrances (Eccl. 9:5, 10). They are dead, not having gone to heaven nor hell (Ps. 104: 29; Eccl. 3: 20; Acts 2: 29, 34). They don’t return to their homes, nor have anything to do with anything under the sun (Eccl. 9: 6).
Her response doesn’t deal with my question. She goes on a rant about the truth of what she knows. But what about God’s Word, I interject. She says that the Bible doesn’t matter; that God speaks to her directly.
Her voice begins to rise. She insinuates that the problem is that people like me need to be more attentive when messages like hers are delivered, even if coming from a child.
I inform her that I don’t accept spiritual talk unless it squares with scripture. That inflames her. She and her granddaughter walk away.
This they did before I could tell her to consider that the true biblical prophets embraced scripture, magnified it, and exhorted others to listen to it.
I wanted her to consider that because she was at odds with scripture, and that because her granddaughter’s experiences were contrary to God’s Word; other than godly influences were at work. Familiar spirits are what I had in mind. Those are spirits who have access to intimate knowledge of family members over a substantial period of time; sometimes for a generation or more.
I don’t know, of course, if her listening to any of that would’ve made a difference. She, like so many others, is so easily won over by signs and wonders. Little thought, if any, is given to measuring these sorts of things against God’s Word. And when they are and they don’t line up, preference is often given over to feelings.
Wrongful tradition also seems to exert a strong influence over holy writ. For instance, in the above spoken matter of death, most Christians ignore what the Bible has to say about it. Man-made, hand-me-down doctrine is accepted instead.
Now, if what I’m saying is true, then who do you suppose introduced these false doctrines into the church? Exactly! It’s none other than Satan himself, having introduced them through his counterfeit Christianity.
That’s why God’s word is safety for the believer. In it and by it, the elect cannot be deceived.
Here’s a self-honesty check. Take a read of my articles Dead-On Truth About Death and The Soul Explained. Ask yourself if what I’m saying agrees with the Word. If so, will you accept it, or will you hang on to an untruthful, traditional doctrine?
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These [Beareans] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Acts 17: 11
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To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8: 20.